


Early Mornings

by sillythings



Category: Boruto: Naruto Next Generations, Naruto
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-08-11
Updated: 2019-09-03
Packaged: 2020-08-18 23:15:57
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 9,381
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20199802
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sillythings/pseuds/sillythings
Summary: I was inspired by the Sasusaku Month 2019 prompt "Early Mornings."  So this will be a series of early morning inspired one-shots in the life of Sasuke and Sakura.  I have 3 written already.  If the muse is kind, I will add more.





	1. Chapter 1

The moon had just begun to fade when Sasuke returned home. He opened the door silently, not wanting to wake his family. He would slip into bed next to his wife and enjoy the peace of the early morning, listening to her steady breathing, waiting for her to wake up. 

It was not to be, however, because he was no sooner inside their home when he heard quiet shuffling in the kitchen and the occasional clink of dishes. He stood just outside the door of the kitchen, a shadowy figure in the dark, watching his wife move about, taking care to be quiet lest she wake their sleeping daughter.

He glanced at the clock and saw it was just 5:00 am, but Sakura was already preparing for the day. Tea was brewing, and a bowl of cracked eggs stood at the ready near the stove. Sakura worked at the counter, filling boxes and containers, making lunch for herself and Sarada. 

Sasuke’s first thought was that she was beautiful, and his blood stirred at the sight of her. He had been so lonely without her. Sakura’s pink hair was still mussed from sleep, and her light nightgown clung to her form. He knew how soft she would feel in his arms. He could almost smell her warm skin, but he held off stepping into the light and greeting her with the embrace he had been imagining for the last few miles.

He watched her quick, efficient movements as she packed their daughter’s lunch. Taking care to fold the napkin just so, making the lunch attractive to the eye as well as the tongue, letting their girl know she was cared for and loved. She sent him off with lunches like that, too.

Sasuke smiled at Sakura’s indulgence of their daughter, but watching her precise movements, he suddenly realized with a sharp pain in his heart how tired his wife was. She was not just sleepy. Her eyes were shadowed, and her mouth was set into a determined line. The set of her shoulders and the methodical movements, as if she were forcing each motion, spoke of a bone deep weariness.

He had seen her like this once before when she was heavily pregnant with Sarada, and they realized they were not going to make it Konoha in time. He had cursed himself for the foolish miscalculation, though Sakura assured him that babies and labor were not so predictable. One foot in front of the other, she had trudged through her early labor pains, her mouth set. She trusted him to guide her to safety, while she did what she could to not slow them down. She would have liked nothing more than to have stopped, she told him later, but she knew that would only put the child at risk. She did not want to walk through the pain, but she did it until he had led her to Orochimaru’s lair where she had labored through the night and another day before she brought forth their beautiful daughter just as the sun was setting.

Sakura had never been one to hold back her feelings, but in labor, she had been almost silent, focused on her body and what it needed to do. Karin, surprised as she had been by their appearance at her door, had encouraged Sakura as best she could, but it was Sakura’s quiet, inward focus that Sasuke remembered. She only groaned when the very end was near, when she sensed the task was almost done. Then, she gave voice to a primal cry with the final push. It was a sound that stayed with Sasuke long afterward, even after he heard his wife’s joyous laugh when Karin laid their slippery, squalling daughter in her arms. It had been a mingling of pain, terror and triumph -- a battlecry for a battle in which he was a mere bystander. He played his part in it, to be sure. He had fathered the tiny, dark haired girl afterall, but during the birth, he could only watch, could only support Sakura by standing by her side, holding her hand, her leg, whispering what encouragement he could.

But what had he done for her in this new battle? He was fighting on another front, a fellow soldier, but so far away. How long had she gone on, keeping house, working full time, caring for their child while he was gone? Not just with this last brief mission, but in total? It was years. Years spent doing everything a family and home needed to function, both physically and emotionally.

He knew this. He knew. He was sorry every day of his life for it, but Sakura never compounded his guilt. She understood that he kept them safe. She understood the need for their sacrifice, and she welcomed him home after each mission with a loving smile that held no trace of blame. She was his home, the center of his life, keeping this place a safe haven, raising his bright and beautiful child, giving him hope and purpose during his long toil to keep them and the entire village safe.

In this unguarded moment, so early in the morning, there were no smiles, no flowers. There was no bitterness either, but he saw a woman worn down, a woman who reserved her smiles for when there were others around who needed them, but who did not have the energy to smile for herself. He saw a lonely, determined woman, up before dawn doing what must be done. 

This was that strength that kept her going. This was a strength greater than the fist that took down armies. As much as he admired her strength as a warrior, this quiet strength awed him. It may have been her greatest strength, beyond medical ninjustsu and chakra control. His lovely Sakura had the faith to keep moving, to keep loving, even when most others would have given up hope. It was a strength he knew he did not possess, and he knew better than anyone how many times this quiet strength had saved him from endless darkness.

Sasuke finally moved out from the shadows, silently stepping behind his wife, and reached around Sakura’s waist, pulling her close. She was as soft as he had expected she would be, and he held her to his chest, warm and sweet. At his first touch she gasped, but within a second realized who held her and turned in his embrace to see him face to face. Her lovely green eyes were no longer sleepy, but bright with her surprise and happiness.

“Anata?!” she cried out, joyous. “What--” 

He interrupted her, bending his head close to hers.

“Thank you,” he whispered into her ear. “Thank you for everything.”


	2. Chapter 2

The Infinite Tsukuyomi had been lifted, and the reunited members of Team 7 withdrew to a small, protected clearing to rest before making their way back to Konoha. From their vantage, they saw the villagers freed of their restraints, and at this point in the night, they could watch the lights as the rest of the Hidden Leaf set up emergency shelter, tended the wounded and set about the business of taking the first painful step into recovery in the aftermath of the war.

On a smaller scale, Team 7 was doing the same. There was a small fire, and though severely depleted and injured herself, Sakura had tended to each of them, Kakashi, Naruto, and Sasuke before she collapsed on the ground next to the fire, too exhausted to go on. The rest of the village could wait. The team needed this time of peace and togetherness before they returned to the others.

It was dark, just before dawn, when Sakura jerked awake. Sitting up, every muscle in her body screaming for rest, she threw an anxious glance at her patients, all sleeping deeply: her trusted sensei, her dear friend, and her beloved...Sasuke was not there.

Her heart clenched in her chest, as despair and fury bubbled up deep. 

Dammit! Was that it then? A brief apology. Saving the world, and off he creeps? No goodbye? 

Then she heard again the sound that woke her. A harsh, wheezing gasp for breath, and she searched the shadows until she saw him, sitting some distance away with his face buried in his knees. His shoulders were shaking.

Sakura crept as quietly as she could, but Sasuke heard her anyway. She was only a few feet away when he lifted his head to watch her, his cheeks wet and his eyes --- they were dark, like they used to be. He was so weak and there was no chakra left to fuel those dangerous eyes. Without the sharingan and rinnegan, he looked like the old Sasuke, the boy who had been her teammate and friend. Could he still be those things to her? 

“Do you hurt?” Sakura asked him, sitting down beside him. She reached for the remains of his left arm, gently probing the barely healed flesh. The stump was red and swollen. She had done all she could, but it would take much more than she could currently give to set his arm to rights.

He allowed her to run her healing hands over his arm, but Sasuke made no answer except another heaving breath. 

“Are you in pain, Sasuke?” she asked again. Sasuke shook his head. He was tense and rigid, and when she laid a concerned hand on his shoulder he flinched.

“I’m sorry,” she mumbled, snatching her hand away and tucking it into her lap. She knelt beside him, her head bowed. Sakura wanted to offer comfort. She wanted to help him. She wanted….she did not know what she wanted. Sasuke was back. Wasn’t that what she had always wanted? She did not know. She was tired. So tired. 

She stared at her hands in her lap, barely visible in the graying sky. Dawn was approaching.

“I’m the one who is sorry,” came Sasuke’s choked voice, and his hand, his only hand, reached out to her, and she grasped it with her own, her fingers intertwining with his. 

Why did this feel so familiar, she thought, dull and stupid with fatigue before she realized she had held his hand in much the same way in the Forest of Death, when he had been marked by Orochimaru.

Relying on physical memory more than actual thought, Sakura reached out with her other hand, rising up to gather Sasuke close. She ended up with his hand still clasped in her own, and his head buried in her lap. With her free hand she stroked his hair as he shook with barely suppressed sobs.

“I’m sorry…” he whispered against her middle, his tears soaking her black shirt, torn and filthy from battle. “So sorry.” It was a chant, barely voiced, whispered into her belly.

“I know,” she soothed, petting his head. His black hair was rough, oily and matted with sweat and blood. “I know.”

“I forgive you,” she told him simply. “We all forgive you. Me, Kakashi, Naruto…” Would the others forgive him? Could Sasuke ever walk the streets of Konoha again? She had to believe that he could, but she was tired, too tired to think what he would face upon his return. It was enough to hold him now in the old bonds of their team. He was safe with them. 

“I don’t deserve it” he gasped. “I don’t.”

Sakura held him as he trembled, and in a daze, she remembered the bleeding red-haired medic, the body of Danzo at Sasuke’s feet. She could almost feel his hand on her own throat, the crackle of lightning on his fingertips and the weight of the poisoned kunai in her fist. Sakura ran her fingers lightly over the stump of Sasuke’s left arm and thought about the matching wound Naruto bore on the remains of his right arm. 

No, you don’t, came the strangely flat and unemotional thought that Sakura bit down before she could say out loud to the weeping boy in her lap.

But that thought did not linger long before Sakura thought of a thousand sins she herself had committed, both mundane and appalling, accidental and intentional.  _ Working the garden boxes on the balcony with her mother and inadvertently slicing a basking lizard in half with the blade of her trowel. Viciously twisting Ino’s dangling ponytail until the other girl cried out in pain. Refusing to share her lunch with Naruto until Sasuke himself made the first move to feed their hungry teammate. What an idiot she had thought Naruto. What an annoyance. What a fool. _

Sakura was a medic. She healed people, but she had hurt people, too. It was an inevitable part of the shinobi life. Random flashes of all too vivid memories, disjointed and confusing, ran through her fatigued mind. Pain and blood. Killing. Killing Sasori. Confessing a false love to Naruto so that she could murder the very boy she held in her arms, a mercy kill she had told herself. A mercy to kill him and to die with him she thought. Good intentions made it no less a sin. 

Sakura let go of Sasuke’s hand and wrapped her arms around him as best as she could with him huddled in her lap. He snaked his good arm around her waist, clutching her tightly, and she bent over to press her mouth close to his ear.

“No one ever does,” she whispered into his hair. You cannot ever earn forgiveness, she wanted to tell him. It is a grace, a gift freely given, she wanted to say, but her tongue was thick and dry in her mouth. All she could do was hold him as the sun slowly rose and let him know he was forgiven by everyone who mattered. He just had to figure out how to forgive himself.


	3. Chapter 3

Karin was in the lab, carefully writing up the results of her latest experiment when she heard the noise in the corridor. Someone had activated the secret entrance . Currently, she was all alone in this hideout, the rest of Orochimaru’s minions assigned to other tasks, but clearly someone had been sent to her -- with a message, supplies, new orders -- more work to be done, regardless of what it was, she sighed to herself. 

Begrudgingly, she put down her pen and stood to go greet the newcomer. Here she was, working all alone in a remote hideout, and someone still managed to interrupt her while she was working on the most fiddly bit of her data. Karin opened the door to the corridor, ready to bark orders at whatever flunky who had been sent her way, when she stopped short, stunned by what she sensed emanating from the entryway.

She knew that chakra, had longed to feel its presence everyday since they had last met, and when she heard his voice shouting her name, desperation ringing in each syllable, Karin believed for one mad, giddy instant that her romantic dreams had come true.

Sasuke had finally realized how much he loved her. He needed her. There was no doubting the plaintive note in his voice and the distress that was emanating off of him. He wanted her most desperately. With her heart thudding in her chest, Karin rushed to the entrance of the lair.

“Karin!” she heard Sasuke shout again.

She paused right before she rounded the corner and took stock of herself. It would not do for her to appear desperate. She unbuttoned the top button of her blouse and ran her hands through her hair, giving her, she hoped, a sexy tousled look. Taking a deep breath, she smoothed her hands over her belly and hips, giving herself a moment to calm her beating heart. She whipped off her glasses and turned to meet her love.

“Sasuke-kun!” She purred, ever so casual, the tip of one arm of her glasses pressed against her lips. Her smile was coy.

Unfortunately, the effect was quite wasted because his back was to her, broad beneath his black cloak. Sasuke was even taller and stronger than the last time she had seen him. He was every inch a man, she noted with appreciation. 

“Sasuke-kun?” She said when he did not immediately turn at the sound of her voice. It was then she realized that he was not alone. Someone was hunched over in front of him. 

Without her glasses on, Karin saw a smudge of pink and red. 

Pink. 

Pink hair.

What the hell was that kid doing here? The girl who had confronted Sasuke so long ago on the bridge, his Konoha teammate who had saved her life after Sasuke had gone mad and tried to kill the red-haired medic. The girl who had wept for him as she refused to end Karin’s life. The girl who saved Karin. The girl who loved Sasuke, too.

Squinting, Karin took stock of the scene before her. Sakura was bent over with her hands on her knees, breathing heavily, while Sasuke hovered over her, his lone hand on the pink-haired woman’s back. 

“Kari-!” Sasuke bellowed, the shout cut short when he turned and realized the medic was standing right behind him. “You are here!” The relief in his tone sent warmth shooting through her veins. She was just stepping forward to embrace him when the girl in front of him shifted, again taking all of his attention.

Sakura straightened up slowly.

“Oof,” she huffed. “That one hurt.”

Karin’s first thought was that the kid had gotten huge! What a shame for a pretty girl to let herself go like that. Almost instantaneously a wave of realization came over her, and Karin shoved her glasses back on, so quickly that they sat crooked on her nose.

Sakura  _ was  _ huge, but she wasn’t fat. 

The kid was pregnant.

Hugely pregnant.

What the hell was she doing here? 

Why would the leaf’s head medic show up  _ here  _ of all places, in the middle of nowhere. Had Orochimaru continued his genetic experiments outside of the lab, perhaps with the help of Konoha’s medical community? If so, Karin certainly should have been made aware, but why else would the girl show up here in this condition? Karin ran through the various possibilities as she stared agape at the two ninjas standing before her, but her eyes kept traveling to Sasuke and his hand on the girl’s back.

“Karin,” Sasuke acknowledged her. “Sakura’s in labor. We need your help  _ now! _ ” 

_ We _ , he said. Karin did not want to believe what her eyes were telling her, but there was no denying the barely contained panic on Sasuke’s face.  _ We need your help. _

“Oh, there’s no rush,” Sakura assured them both, a little breathless. “The pains are only 4 minutes or so apart.” She straightened up, one hand on the small of her back, the other cradling her frankly enormous belly. 

“Hello, Karin,” she said, “long time no see!” She affected a bright and friendly tone, but the young woman was clearly exhausted, and beneath her sweet expression, a trace of fear lurked. “I sure never expected to be back here again!”

“What the hell?” Karin finally said, completely thrown. 

“She’s having a baby,” Sasuke said, as if Karin could not see with her own eyes that the pink-haired kid was about to pop. “Now.” 

“No kidding!” Karin retorted, too shocked to maintain her sweet seduction of the man she loved. “Have you been travelling  _ through labor _ ?” she asked Sakura incredulously. “How long have you been having contractions?”

“Oh, not too long,” Sakura answered, a trifle faintly, “just the last few miles.” She turned to smile at the young man next to her. “Sasuke used Susanoo to cover most of the distance, but he was wearing himself out, and there was really no need.”

She was keeping a bright face for Sasuke, trying to assure him he had done the right thing, that she was fine. Sasuke looked ready to pass out from chakra depletion or nerves...or both. Karin had seen him angry, despondent, impassive, murderous, but never like this, on the verge of an anxiety attack.

“You must examine her, Karin, and she needs to rest,” Sasuke said. “Is my old room still available?”

It was. Technically. Karin actually liked to use it herself now and then, laying his old bed, imagining his manly scent still clung to the pillow and the long since laundered sheets. 

“Yes, but…” Karin did not know where to start. “I- I’ll need to move some things...and the room is certainly not ready for...for  _ this _ !” she was growing angry. She hated feeling flustered. Why had they come here like this? It could not be true. Sakura could not be pregnant with his...

“Oh, that’s fine,” Sakura answered, “I just need to rest a bit. Anything else can wait.” The girl was pale, but still ridiculously cheerful. It was a marked contrast to Sasuke’s normally impassive face, which was now contorted with worry.

“How are you still on your feet?” Karin asked. For the moment, she shoved her rapidly crashing hopes and fears into a dark corner of her mind to deal with later and took charge of the situation. Whatever was going on, the kid needed help.

“Come with me now!” She turned to lead the way to Sasuke’s old chambers. While Sasuke knew about the traps, he was preoccupied with Sakura, and the girl herself was in no condition to be alert to Orochimaru’s protective measures for his hideout. She barked out instructions for their safety, “Keep right...Not that way!” but did not look back.

Her head was spinning, angry tears beginning to start in her eyes. This could not be happening. It could not be what it looked like. What kind of an idiot takes a pregnant woman to Orochimaru’s lab? Didn’t Sasuke remember what kinds of experiments they did around here? Though maybe it  _ was _ an experiment. That would explain this, Karin latched onto that wild thought brightly. Maybe they were just helping out Orochimaru in a most unorthodox manner.   
  


“Walking during labor is actually good, you know?” Sakura rambled, leaning heavily on Sasuke’s right arm as they followed after Karin. “It helps shorten labor, and the pains are only…” here she paused.

Karin turned to look back and in the flickering torchlight, she saw the pink-haired medic clutching Sasuke, one arm around his neck. She breathed deep, making a low keening noise on the exhale. Sasuke held her close, his head bent close to hers, his hand again rubbing circles on her back. He was murmuring something in Sakura’s ear, something that made her nod.

“Okay, yeah, they are getting closer,” she answered him. Still standing in Sasuke’s embrace, she looked up at Karin, eyes bright with pain. “Still here in good time though,” she smiled weakly. 

No, Karin thought, despondent, this is not a good time at all.

  
  


* * *

  
  


“Do you have any mild pain killers or sedatives?” Sakura asked once they were in Sasuke’s old room. It was dimly lit and almost bare, with little more than the bed and a small table and chair against the stone wall. As often as Karin had fantasized being in this very room with Sasuke, she never dreamed it would be like this. Sighing with relief at the chance to rest, Sakura sat down gratefully on the bed, only to stand up again when another pain hit her. She glanced at Karin, waiting for her answer.

Karin named what she had in stock, and Sakura nodded. 

“I’ll have the crampbark tincture then,” Sakura sighed, rubbing her back again. “But not too much. I will need to rest to have energy for the final stages, but I don’t want to stop feeling the contractions.”

Despite herself, Karin was impressed Sakura was thinking so clearly, but the Konoha kunoichi was a medic too, one of the best if the rumors were true. 

“I have scullcap, too,” the red-haired woman said, mentally running through her stock of medications. Chamomile might be useful to help her relax, and what if there was hemorrhaging...

“What about Capsella elixir?” Sakura asked before she paused for another contraction, eyes closed. Sakura was thinking along the same lines, then. Even though she felt emotionally battered, the professional in Karin was pleased to have a colleague equal to her knowledge. The elixir Sakura named could be used if she began to bleed out. 

Karin nodded to herself, and then glanced at Sasuke. She would have laughed at the helpless look on his face if she did not feel her own heart breaking in half. He stood there awkwardly, his cloak and shoes still on. He would have probably been wringing his hands if he’d had two to put together. As it was, he just offered himself to Sakura to lean on, looking utterly baffled by the women’s conversation.

“I have it,” Karin said, “though hopefully it won’t be necessary.” Sasuke’s face went blank, but Karin felt the shift in his chakra. Barely controlled panic lurked behind his eyes. If this was what it appeared to be, if Sakura was about to birth Sasuke’s child, she was discussing potential complications in front of a man who had already lost his entire family. Her fingers itched to reach out to him, to comfort him by smoothing that frighteningly blank expression off his face, to hold him in her arms. He could count on her. He must know that. She would never fail him.

“No, of course not,” Sakura said smoothly, unclasping her travel cloak and tossing it on the bed. “But if it comes down to it, it will be useful to have,” Sakura continued. “First though, is there a bath?” She changed the subject casually, as if she were not just discussing the potential of dying during labor. So, the kid had sensed Sasuke’s distress, too. 

For all that she was in the midst of labor and exhausted from her journey, Sakura was all business. It was an act of control, taking comfort in her medical knowledge as she was heading into the great unknown. Karin would have done the same in her circumstances. She also realized that Sakura was still attempting to stay calm for Sasuke, who for all his outward stoicism, was a seething mass of passionate emotion beneath. His chakra, as exciting as it had ever been, was keyed up, emanating his fear for the woman by his side.

Sasuke answered Sakura, “There is a bathroom just through that door,” he indicated with a nod of his head, relieved at being able to provide some help, some knowledge, in this situation. Karin felt a wave of nostalgia, pleased that he remembered, wondering if he had pleasant memories of when he had been there with Karin before. Granted, Jugo and Suigetsu had been there as well, but they did not matter.

Only Sasuke.

“Ah, good! A bath is just what I need!” Sakura smiled and then winced as she breathed through yet another contraction, clutching at Sasuke’s arm. 

“Wait,” Karin asked when Sakura straightened up again, “Have your waters broken?” 

Sakura gave her a keen look, though even in the dim light, Karin could see her eyes were bright with tears. That last one must have been a doozy. “You’ve delivered a baby before?” Sakura asked, her tone direct.

Karin suddenly realized she was being tested. All those questions about the elixirs and such.  _ The kid thought she was clever, huh _ . Well, Karin was not about to be shown up by this Konoha medic. She may not have delivered a baby recently, but she had helped her own mother deliver other women’s babies in the village. She knew enough. 

“I have,” she said with authority, “and if your waters have broken, you cannot have a bath.”  _ So there, Pinky _ . Sakura was Karin’s patient now, and she was not about to be pushed around by some other medic.

“Well, they haven’t,” Sakura answered, just as firmly, “so a warm bath it is, to wash off the travel grime and take the edge ooofff,” she finished with a gasp. Sasuke, who had not left her side, immediately offered his hand for her to squeeze. After a few moments, Sakura nodded and looked up at Sasuke, a faint blush on her cheeks.

“Can you help me,” she almost whispered, her bravado gone for the moment. The pains were getting worse. “Just watch over me while I’m in the water, just in case…”

Sasuke frowned at her, “You did not need to ask.” He knelt before her and with one hand began to unzip her boots. Karin noted the familiarity in this motion. As big as Sakura was, she likely had not seen her feet for some time. Sakura rested one hand on his shoulder, and they managed to get one boot off before another contraction hit. Sakura laid both hands on Sasuke’s shoulders as he remained kneeling and swayed through the pain. He wrapped his hand around her bare calf, holding her steady, while he stared up into her contorted face, watching her anxiously.

Karin had seen enough for the moment and left them to go into the small bathroom that adjoined the sleeping chamber. She stood next to the tub as it filled, chewing her thumbnail, staring down into the hot, swirling water, considering the facts before her.

Fact number one: Sasuke had shown up after more than two years, to  _ her  _ lab, the hideout where he knew she would be, where she usually worked with little company. How long she had hoped he would appear at her door and confess his need for her!

Fact number two: Sasuke showed up with the pink-haired kunoichi, his former team mate who loved him. Karin remembered well the hot salt of the girls tears falling on her face as she healed the red-head after Sasuke’s attack. She knew then that Sakura loved Sasuke deeply, and who could blame her. Karin loved him still, even after all he had done.

Fact number three: Sasuke showed up with his _ pregnant  _ former team mate who loved him. It appeared that Sasuke loved Sakura in return. Karin never would have believed that he could return such an emotion, even as she nursed her own fantasies year after year. After Sasuke left Konoha, Karin never thought he would return to his village, if for no other reason than to keep the village safe from those who would seek him out. In a show of pity and solidarity, she had even sent Sakura a copy of the photo of team Taka just so the poor girl would have something to remember him by. But something about the pink-haired girl had drawn him back home, despite the risks. 

Fact number 4: Sasuke needed Karin to help his pregnant former team mate give birth to  _ their _ child. Of all the places he could have taken Sakura, he had brought her to Karin. He trusted Karin to help them. As much as it hurt her to consider it, Karin owed Sakura. Sakura had shown her compassion when she was still her enemy. Karin lived because of Sakura’s care. She could do no less than her best to help her now, even without Sasuke asking.

Karin blinked back tears as she bent to test the water. Too hot. Sakura would be cooked. She turned on the cool tap and snuck a glance into the bedroom where Sasuke was beginning to help Sakura slip out of her red dress. Karin ducked her head in embarrassment at the intimate scene, and a sharp wave of envy hit her. She would have given anything to have Sasuke treat her so gently.

“The water is ready,” she called to the two in the bedroom, her voice brusque. 

Sasuke appeared in the doorway to survey the room and grab a towel, a towel that was in no way big enough for the pregnant young woman to cover herself. 

“Hold on,” Karin grumbled, putting out a hand to stop him. She reached behind the door, taking a plain cotton robe off the hook. It was his from when he had stayed here before. Did he remember it? Did he understand that she had kept it for him? She handed it to Sasuke. “She’ll be more comfortable with this.”

“Ah,” he said, and reached for the robe. His fingers brushed hers ever so briefly as he took the garment from her hands, and her eyes fluttered shut at the contact. When she opened her eyes, she saw him tenderly wrapping the robe around the pink haired nin’s bare shoulders.

  
  


* * *

  
  


The tincture had done its work, and the freshly bathed Sakura lay in relative comfort in the bed, wrapped in the clean robe, propped up on a few pillows as she sipped raspberry leaf tea. She was trying to convince Sasuke to take a shower and get cleaned up himself.

“You’re worn out, Anata,” Sakura had told him. “I’m comfortable for now, and it will be a while yet. I need Karin to check on a few things, and she will stay with me after she’s done,” she assured him. 

Karin had been about to protest that Pinky would be fine for the time it would take for  _ Anata _ to shower, and she still needed to prepare for the birth herself, but she could not bear to see the worry on his beautiful face.

“Go, go,” she waved her hand at him. “Trust me, you probably don’t want to be around for this next part.”

He was about to protest, when Sakura gave him a stern look. “I’ll be fine,” she said. “Do you doubt me?” She had drawn herself up straight, and in her borrowed robe, with her pink hair rumpled and her belly swollen to ridiculous size, she channeled the dignity of a princess, something she had picked up from her master Tsunade, no doubt. Karin had the feeling that Sakura was conveying much more with her eyes than her words, and the glance they shared made Karin feel that she did not even exist. For them, at that moment, she probably did not.

“Never,” he grunted in response, after a brief pause, his eyes bright with some emotion Karin did not want to name. 

“Then, go!” Sakura commanded, her brows raised. With a fleeting smile, he obeyed, disappearing behind the bathroom door.   
  


With Sasuke out of the room, Karin finally examined Sakura for the first time. She was farther along than Karin would have thought, but she still had a long day ahead of her.

“I’d guess you are 7 centimeters, kid. Close, but you’ve still got a while to go,” was Karin’s verdict as she snapped off her gloves.

“Yeah,” Sakura sighed, shifting in discomfort, “That’s about what I thought.” 

Karin sat next to Sakura, watching her wince through contractions and listening to the running water in the next room, painfully aware that the only thing separating her from a naked Sasuke was one thin door. She felt the tiniest twinge of guilt that she was even thinking about that when she sat next to his pregnant...wife? 

“So, you two are married.” Karin said bluntly. She supposed Sakura could be pregnant without them being married, but Karin knew Sasuke well enough to know that he was not the type to knock up a girl without being committed. He had high standards for himself. It was one of the things Karin loved most about him.

Sakura opened her eyes to look at Karin.

“Of course,” she said. “Almost two years now...this coming June will be two years.” She sighed through another contraction. Karin observed her with a medic’s eye. The contractions were more frequent, but the medicine was working. Sakura was beginning to relax. Hopefully, she would be able to sleep, at least a little.

“Two years! You would have thought he could mention it to his former teammates even if he couldn’t be bothered to invite us to the wedding!” Karin huffed. Bad enough that Sasuke married another woman, but she did not even warrant being told? She thought they were friends if nothing else. She said as much to Sakura.

Sakura laughed gently, “No one was invited. We married shortly after we left on this mission...we wanted to take it slowly, but once we were together…well,” the young woman looked shy, “we realized we had gone slowly enough.” Sakura laughed again, and Karin realized the painkiller was taking effect in more ways than one. She was going to be a chatty one.

“You mean you eloped?” Karin asked. How disgustingly romantic. It’s exactly how she had always imagined her seduction of Sasuke reaching its conclusion. It wasn’t fair.

“Mmm.” Sakura closed her eyes and breathed through her nose. After a moment she looked up at Karin again. “We knew this was going to be a long mission and did not want to wait for a wedding back home.” 

Yeah, no kidding. The evidence of their inability to wait was staring Karin in the face. 

Sakura gave a rueful snort. “My mother is going to be sooo mad, but we really did plan to be home before the baby came...” she began. Sakura’s gaze became distracted, and she bit her lip. Why couldn’t she just finish her tea and go to sleep, Karin thought to herself. She shouldn’t be wasting her energy talking. Besides, Karin was not sure she could bear Sakura’s revelations about her romance with Sasuke. Karin had to stay focused on the job at hand, something that would be very difficult to do as it was. 

“It’s my fault, really.” Sakura confessed to Karin, her words slurred just the slightest bit. “He’d wanted to go home immediately after we found out, but I was not going to have the mission cut short because of me.” She looked guiltily at Karin, “He had worked so hard. He had to finish it, at least this part, and I was strong. I never even really got that sick.”

Karin nodded. Sakura was right. Plenty of women worked strenuous jobs before and after birth, and a top shinobi in her prime really was not going to suffer unduly from being pregnant on the road, though it would not have been easy. The kid was plenty tough, Karin had to admit. 

“He is so happy about the baby,” Sakura gave a warm and secret smile, and it hurt something deep inside Karin’s chest. “But he worries so much. You can imagine why.” 

Sakura reached down to rub circles on her belly. Karin noted that the shape of her belly had changed even since she had lain down. The baby was in position. 

“Yeah,” Karin answered, watching Sakura’s hand on her stomach. Being the only survivor of his family’s massacre probably made him _ just slightly _ on edge when it came to creating a new one, she thought wryly.

“It was going really well, and we had made good time,” she frowned, “We probably would have made it back to the village, but it was my birthday three days ago.” Sakura gave Karin a sheepish smile.

Karin shook her head, not understanding, wondering if it was the drug inhibiting her coherence. The big green eyes were a little unfocused.

“I knew the theory about prostaglandins and cervical ripening” Sakura told her, lowering her voice and glancing at the bathroom door. “I  _ am _ a medic nin, but it really hasn’t been proven in research, more folk medicine really…” here she threw a guilty look at Karin, asking for understanding, “and...it  _ was  _ my birthday.”

Karin nodded vaguely at Sakura until her words sank in. When she realized what Sakura had just confessed, the blood rushed to her face, and she let out a sound reminiscent of a strangled toad.

Sasuke chose to emerge at that moment, damp hair clinging to his neck. He was shirtless and with his pants slung low, the sharp angles of his hip bones and a most fascinating line of dark hair on his lower abdomen were revealed to Karin’s wondering eyes. He looked like a the image of a god, carved from marble. Even his missing arm added to the effect. A beautiful broken statue.

“What’s wrong?” He demanded of Karin. “What’s happening?” He was at Sakura’s side in an instant. Sakura just shook her head, and sleepily reached one hand out to calm him. He sat down next to Sakura on the bed and lay his hand on her wide brow. 

“Are the pains that bad?” he murmured.

“That wasn’t me,” Sakura mumbled, “S’was Karin.” Her eyes were drooping.

“What’s wrong with _ you _ ?” Sasuke demanded again. He needed her. He had always admired her cool-headedness and quick, keen judgement. Those very traits made her a valuable member of his team. Karin did not want him to doubt her, even if this situation was absolutely unbearable.

“No-nothing,” Karin stammered, squirming with embarassment and irritation. After all the things she had seen and done in her life, she did  _ not _ get embarrassed. She did not. She was cool, rational. So why did she feel like her face was on fire. _ Dammit. _

She rose to her feet. “I need to go prepare some things. Both of you get some rest,” she ordered. “You’re gonna need your strength.”

And she was going to need a drink. Or a good cry. Maybe both.

* * *

  
  


When Karin finally returned, a basket of supplies in hand, she found Sakura dozing and Sasuke keeping watch, sitting next to her on the bed, his back propped up against the wall. He held her hand in his, gently rubbing his thumb over her knuckles. Occasionally, Sakura would let out a low moan, but she was otherwise still.

“How’s the patient?” Karin asked. 

“You tell me,” he said bluntly. “I don’t know anything about how this should go.” Karin set down the basket on the table and began to unpack it. She saw Sasuke eyed the gauze and sharp scissors. 

“She seems fine, actually,” Karin said, reassuring him. “She’s doing much better than I would expect considering she was literally trudging through the rain a few hours ago.” 

A pained expression furrowed Sasuke’s brow and his jaw tightened.

“It was foolishness,” he said bitterly. “I should have sent her back to Konoha immediately. Now she and the child are at risk.” He kept his eyes fixed on his wife. She stirred slightly at the sound of his voice.

“Who said anything about risk?” Karin asked. “She was a little tired, but she’s sleeping now. No harm done.” There really was not any harm so far as Karin could tell. With first babies, you never could tell for sure, but Sakura stayed calm and had done everything right so far. 

“Women can die giving birth.” Sasuke forced the words out, an edge to his voice.

“You think this is going to do HER in?” Karin snorted. “This one is as tough as nails for all that she looks like a fragile, spring blossom. She’s gonna shove this kid out and be ready for battle in no time.”

The corner of Sasuke’s mouth twisted up. “She’s not weak, I know, but…” he pressed his lips together. He looked down at the young woman next to him. 

“So many times, when I was injured,” he said, “she stayed by my side.” His thumb continued to stroke over the sleeping woman’s knuckles. “She has always been there...at least when I let her be,” he admitted. “I don’t think…” he stopped to consider, “I don’t think I’ve ever sat vigil for her, though she’s always been a constant for me, strong and unmovable.” 

Karin held her breath, her hands still on the shining tools and bottles before her. Her heart reached out to the man she had loved for so long, but his was not for her. He was showing her his heart, though, trusting her to keep it safe for him. 

“I cannot lose her,” he confessed in a soft voice. Sakura sighed in her sleep and tightened her grip on Sasuke’s hand. She was stirring. An aching weight sat heavy in Karin’s chest, but she forced a bright smile.

“Pah!” Karin scoffed. “No one’s losing anyone! In fact, you’re going to gain someone, huh? You can count on me!” She would not let him down. 

Sasuke smiled then, a genuine smile, just for her. “Yeah. I know.” He reached to brush back Sakura’s hair from her face. “Keep her safe, Karin. Do your best.”

Karin would. If it meant Sasuke would keep smiling like that, she would do anything for Sakura and her child. 

* * *

While in the end Karin did not have the bond she wanted with Sasuke, the bond she actually shared with him and Sakura was almost as intimate. 

It was just the three of them those last final hours, until there was a fourth, with a head of dark hair and a pair of very healthy lungs. Vivid images of that evening stayed with Karin long afterward. Primal and dark and sublime. As her labor progressed, Sakura refused to be moved to the lab, to an examination table that had seen who knew how many horrors. 

So, Sarada Uchiha was born with her mother squatting on the stone floor of her father’s old room, flickering candles the only light. Sasuke braced Sakura from behind, holding her in his strong embrace as she labored to bring forth their child. Karin knelt before her, cursing that this would have been a damned sight easier if Pinky had the sense to get her ass to the exam room and in the stirrups like she had been asked. Sakura stubbornly shook her head from side to side. She was not moving for anyone.

The baby’s head was out, the little face shocking in the dim light. Sasuke had bent over Sakura’s shoulder to see, and he seemed stunned by the sight. Karin reflected on this later, remembering the awe on his handsome face, but at the time, she had all focus on the task at hand. She saw that the baby had its fist pressed against the side of one little cheek. Trust Sakura’s baby to try to punch it’s way out of the womb. 

“Don’t...don’t push yet,” Karin warned. That tiny fist was already causing a tear. Working carefully, Karin had maneuvered out the head and the shoulders when she felt Sakura’s soft hands reach down and help pull the baby the rest of the way out.

“Shannaro!” came the gasping, triumphant cry of the pink haired woman, clutching her baby to her chest as she leaned back on her husband for support. Karin scrambled up from the floor to clear the baby’s airway. The shrill cries rang off the stone walls as Karin took a towel and briskly rubbed the baby clean. 

“A girl,” Karin announced reverently. A beautiful girl, with hair as black as her father’s. Karin heard Sakura’s joyful laugh, tears streaming down her face. Sasuke was openly weeping, his hand coming round to touch his daughter’s head with shaking fingertips. Karin’s eyes stung and she swiped at them with the back of one clean wrist.

The rest of it went by in a blur. Karin remembered Sakura standing, naked, bloody and beautiful, her baby held tightly to her breast. She looked like an avenging mother goddess in the flickering lamplight, with Sasuke her dark consort at her side, gently guiding her to lie down on the bed. 

She remembered the tears glinting on Sasuke’s fine cheekbones as he bent to kiss his daughter’s downy head. Karin saw him kiss Sakura, who smiled against his lips. 

“We have a daughter,” she sighed, and he kissed her again, his mouth soft on hers. When pulled away from his wife, he saw Karin staring and he smiled and reached out for her. 

For one confused second, Karin thought he meant to kiss her as well, but he instead grasped her hand, squeezing tightly. 

“Thank you, Karin,” he smiled, his heart in his eyes. “Thank you.” He held her teary gaze for a long moment, letting her see the full measure of his relief and joy and love. Then, he let go of Karin’s hand, turning his attention once more to his wife and daughter.

  
  


* * *

It was just before dawn when the little family was finally cleaned up and settled comfortably after the birth, not that anyone could tell the time deep in the lair as they were, but Karin had been out of the room to clean up and gather a few supplies from the lab and the storerooms. She marked the time before she returned to the three Uchihas.

Sakura was surprisingly bright-eyed, adrenaline and excitement keeping her awake. Sasuke had crashed not long after he determined Sakura and the baby, Sarada, they had called her, to be fully out of danger and at rest. He was stretched out beside Sakura, frankly snoring, and Karin and Sakura exchanged a grin over his sleeping form. 

“You’d think he’d done all the work, the way he’s sawing logs,” scoffed Karin, but she felt a tender ache looking down at his vulnerable face. Sakura cast a loving glance at him, but she could not tear her eyes away from her baby for long. 

“Isn’t she beautiful, Karin?” Sakura asked, smiling down at her daughter. Karin murmured her agreement. She had not seen so very many babies, but she could not recall any lovelier than Sarada.

“Her chakra is so bright,” Karin smiled in wonder at the dark-haired baby in Sakura’s arms. “It’s the brightest I’ve ever felt.” 

She spoke quietly, not wanting to disturb the baby or Sasuke, for that matter. But it was more than mere consideration. In the aftermath of the birth, the atmosphere was hushed and reverent. Something magical had occured, and Karin was loathe to disturb the peaceful spell that lingered over them all. 

Sakura sighed happily as her little daughter nuzzled into her breast. “She’s brand new. It just radiates off of her, doesn’t it?” Sakura stroked Sarada’s satiny cheek, and tried to coax her to take her breast. After a few false starts, the baby managed to latch on, and Sakura and Karin shared a look of triumph.

“Yeah,” Karin agreed, “you can really tell that you are her mother, even if she does look exactly like Sasuke.”

If Karin was holding on to any delusions that Sasuke was not the father, they were dispelled the second she pulled Sarada from her mother. The tiny girl was the image of her father, from the black hair down to the finely tapered fingers. She was an Uchiha through and through. But the infant’s soul, though, that was another matter. Her chakra was as bright as the sunshine on a spring morning, dispelling the winter chill. It was the warm breeze, sending the cherry blossoms dancing through the sky.

Sakura glanced at Karin and then back to her baby, watching her nurse. “What does that mean?” 

“Your chakra is like...like your village,” Karin said simply, smiling at the young woman and her baby, “warm and loving.”

Sakura rolled her eyes. “I wish that were true. I have a terrible temper,” her words were flippant, but her tone was gentle as she stroked the dark hair on her baby’s head. 

“It is true, anger or no, and it’s changed Sasuke,” Karin reflected a moment, “His chakra has lost its darkness. He is almost as warm as you are,” Karin smiled, “at least when he is with you and this little one.” She grinned at the baby who had let go of her mother’s breast and was beginning to blink her dark little eyes, sleepy from the effort of being born.

Sakura looked at Karin, her eyes sparkling once more with tears. Damn. The kid seemed to have an endless supply. 

“I don’t think that it’s me,” Sakura told her, glancing down again at her sleeping husband, “but I do know the old Sasuke is back, like he was before the curse of hatred.”

“No, it’s you,” Karin said. “At least mostly you. I imagine Naruto has something to do with it too.” Sakura made him happy, Karin could tell. There was the joy of the baby of course, but even in the midst of the worry and pain, Karin had seen how Sasuke had looked at Sakura, had felt the change in his chakra when he touched her. Sakura had brought love back to Sasuke, and now they had the tangible proof of it, sleeping in Sakura’s arms.

“I would not have any of this without Naruto,” Sakura answered Karin, looking down at her daughter. “But I could not have any of this without you either, Karin.”

Karin drew her brows up in surprise. “Me? I didn’t do anything.” She really did not do much considering. For someone with her skill, helping Sakura give birth was nothing. 

“I mean it. What would I have done without you?” Sakura laid her hand on Karin’s arm, a touch that both pleased and discomfited the red-haired woman. 

“Eh, you would have yanked the kid out yourself,” Karin brushed off the compliment. “You know enough medical ninjutsu to pull it off by yourself.” She spoke the truth. It would not be easy, but Sakura could have done it.

Sakura would not be brushed aside. “Maybe. I could probably have given birth by myself, but-” she squeezed Karin’s arm for emphasis, “-it would have been so hard on Sasuke if you had not been here. He could trust you to take care of me.” She held Karin’s gaze, her green eyes kind. “Do you understand?”

She knew, Karin realized. Sakura knew the depth Karin’s feelings for Sasuke, and it was okay. Sakura loved him too, and if Karin’s love was deep enough to help her give birth to her and Sasuke’s daughter, then Sakura’s love was magnanimous enough to be grateful for her help.

Karin stared back at Sakura and then looked over at Sasuke, breathing steadily next to his wife and daughter. She felt her chin wobble, and she hurriedly reached up to adjust her glasses to hide her reaction.

“Yeah, yeah,” Karin replied, standing up suddenly, causing Sakura’s hand to drop from her arm. “Why don’t you get some sleep instead of yakking my ear off.” She grinned slyly down at Sakura. “The work is just beginning, you know.”

“You’re right,” Sakura admitted with a deep breath, looking down at the baby in her arms. “Would you mind holding her, Karin. Just for a little while?” Sakura had barely let go of the child since she had been born hours before. Sasuke had held her while Karin had helped Sakura clean up, but after that, she had stayed warmly ensconced in Sakura’s arms.

Of course Karin did not mind. Sakura placed the warm little bundle in Karin’s arms, and closed her eyes with a sigh. Karin stood next to the bedside, looking down into Sarada’s sleepy little face. 

Karin had dreamed many times of holding a baby who looked just like this. She had fantasized about her life with Sasuke many times over the years, and while she sometimes imagined them with sons, other times with daughters, she always dreamed of their children with dark hair and dark eyes. Holding this little one was almost a dream come true. 

Almost.

Though Karin could not help feeling the bitter sting that came with letting go of what she always knew was a far-reaching hope, there was a new joy that came from knowing Sasuke was out of danger. His soul was safe in the hands of the pink-haired woman sleeping next to him, their deep breaths almost in unison. 

She had seen Sasuke’s delighted smile when his daughter was laid in his arms, and he had trusted Karin to keep the two he held dearest safe. 

As Karin rocked the baby in her arms, she opened her heart to a new bond, one that linked her to Sasuke through his wife and daughter, one that was real and true, not born of misplaced lust and admiration. 

And it was enough.


End file.
